Friday 27th March
Two things that caught my attention reading about IL today …
a note from Michael Eisenberg that the ability to filter out irrelevant info is probably more important than the ability to identify something useful when searching for information. Given the prevalence of info overload these days, this rings very true … and now I have forgotten who it was said that travelling the information landscape is rather more like excavating landfill than driving the superhighway!
Eisenberg, M. (2007) ‘Teaching information literacy: context, context, context’ in Curzon, S., & Lampert, L., Proven strategies for building an information literacy program. New York: Neal-Schuman.
The other is a quirky quote from Robert Heinlein’s 1973 novel Time enough for love:
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” (p.248).
Perhaps it is the random juxtaposition of tasks that made me laugh … of course, it shouldnt, life is so random that who knows which task will come next? We would have to add a few more skills these days, and they would all have to do with our ‘digital lives’ and social networking … perhaps just a few “new problems” to “analyze”? What a job description Heinlein gives us! Our libraries should be full of humans researching … luckily for libraries, the insects should feel no compulsion to come too.
... just noticed Sheila Webber's Info Lit weblog entry for Wednesday quoting Tim Buckley-Owen's discussion of the 'Digital Britain' report:
'“It’s not just a question of people knowing what buttons to push. We need to ensure everyone has the skills to recognise what is worth having and what’s garbage.”'http://information-literacy.blogspot.com/
landfill excavation technique may be the new hot topic ... problem is, telling the garbage from the flowers depends very much on time, place and individual purpose
No comments:
Post a Comment